| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: Apodyterium playing at odd and even with a number of dice, which they took
out of little wicker baskets. There was also a circle of lookers-on; among
them was Lysis. He was standing with the other boys and youths, having a
crown upon his head, like a fair vision, and not less worthy of praise for
his goodness than for his beauty. We left them, and went over to the
opposite side of the room, where, finding a quiet place, we sat down; and
then we began to talk. This attracted Lysis, who was constantly turning
round to look at us--he was evidently wanting to come to us. For a time he
hesitated and had not the courage to come alone; but first of all, his
friend Menexenus, leaving his play, entered the Palaestra from the court,
and when he saw Ctesippus and myself, was going to take a seat by us; and
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: this fellow scraped away; and the world was positively a better place
for all who heard him. We have yet to understand the economical
value of these mere accomplishments. I told the fiddler he was a
happy man, carrying happiness about with him in his fiddle-case, and
he seemed alive to the fact.
'It is a privilege,' I said. He thought a while upon the word,
turning it over in his Scots head, and then answered with conviction,
'Yes, a privilege.'
That night I was summoned by 'Merrily danced the Quake's wife' into
the companion of Steerage No. 4 and 5. This was, properly speaking,
but a strip across a deck-house, lit by a sickly lantern which swung
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: Your lordship has now heard the cause of my discomposure, and of
my sudden desire to leave your hospitable castle. In other
places I trust we may often meet, but God protect me from ever
spending a second night under that roof!"
Strange as the General's tale was, he spoke with such a deep air
of conviction that it cut short all the usual commentaries which
are made on such stories. Lord Woodville never once asked him if
he was sure he did not dream of the apparition, or suggested any
of the possibilities by which it is fashionable to explain
supernatural appearances as wild vagaries of the fancy, or
deceptions of the optic nerves, On the contrary, he seemed deeply
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: pity of a generous heart. You are the one woman whose eyes have
shone with a tenderer light when bent on me.
"And because you let fall this glance--a mere grain of dust, yet a
grace surpassing any bestowed on me when I stood at the summit of
a subject's ambition--I long to tell you, Louise, how dear you are
to me, and that my love is for yourself alone, without a thought
beyond, a love that far more than fulfils the conditions laid down
by you for an ideal passion.
"Know, then, idol of my highest heaven, that there is in the world
an offshoot of the Saracen race, whose life is in your hands, who
will receive your orders as a slave, and deem it an honor to
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